"Rosen... who stands behind him...?"
The Ancient God's avatar murmured to itself as it sensed its own weakened divine essence.
Rosen was born in the Ancient God's world. One of his core abilities came from the Ancient God Sequence, and he had even managed to grasp the power of miracles right under the Ancient God's nose. Yet it wasn't until Rosen stole the Time Source Seed that the Ancient God realized someone like him existed in the world it ruled.
To infiltrate so thoroughly and silently—this couldn't possibly be the work of a mere immortal god or demon like Apocalypse leveraging the Book of Destiny.
Someone of equal power to the Ancient God must have been standing behind Rosen to make this possible.
Yet no matter how deeply the Ancient God investigated, it couldn't uncover who that hidden figure was.
What's more, Rosen had somehow quietly ascended to become an Eternal Lifeform. Though he still lagged far behind the Ancient God's true self, the avatar he had created using the Primordial Remains he possessed was actually more powerful than the Ancient God's own Dark Sun avatar. This growing threat was beginning to endanger the true body itself.
The Ancient God's avatar returned to the Spirit Realm to recover briefly before using space-time laws to tear through the void to the edge of the universe.
The closer it came to the universe's edge, the weaker the space-time laws became.
The Nightfall Syndicate had concealed itself here. The moment the Ancient God's avatar stepped through the rift, it crushed dozens of superclusters around it.
As the Dark Sun Eye engulfed all surrounding light, the Nightfall Syndicate, hidden deep in the void, finally revealed itself.
The true body of the Nightfall Syndicate looked like a small burial mound, no larger than a fist.
That mound rapidly expanded in the void, reaching several meters tall before splitting open. A mechanical puppet resembling an upright mantis emerged. Its abdomen opened up to store the now-shrunken mound, and in the blink of an eye, it swung its blade-like arms at the Ancient God's avatar.
Accelerated by the Space-Time Source Seed, the Ancient God's avatar barely managed to block with the Heaven-Splitting Axe.
Yet this weapon, which could cut through anything, now bore a visible scar where the blade struck.
Even more terrifying, the Nightfall Guardian had more than one blade-arm. Just as the right blade was blocked, the left flashed through the void, slashing toward the avatar's head. The speed and power were so overwhelming that even the Ancient God's avatar felt a primal fear.
It tried its utmost to freeze space and time to evade, but the Guardian's blades sliced through both with ease.
In the end, the avatar had no choice but to give up on dodging. The Guardian's strike severed its head cleanly.
Though it lost its head, the avatar managed to twist space-time and teleport it away.
The Nightfall Guardian immediately gave up on the body to pursue the head. Its twin blades slashed relentlessly, obliterating the Dark Sun Eye embedded in the avatar's skull until it turned to ash. Only then did it turn back to hunt the escaping avatar, now fleeing through torn space.
In the endless void between the Primordial Sea of Darkness and the cosmic starry sky, the Ancient God's avatar leaped across space repeatedly, trying to keep the Guardian chasing it.
Its severed head had already regenerated, but now only the right Dark Sun Eye remained.
The Guardian's ultimate mission was to wait for the universe's end, and its secondary mission was to destroy the Dark Sun.
Despite exhausting every effort, the Ancient God's avatar had only managed to save one eye through the power of space-time reincarnation. It couldn't afford to leap directly across half the universe; doing so would cause the Guardian to lose its target and abandon the chase. It had no choice but to keep baiting the Guardian toward the Primordial Sea of the Universe.
Most Eternal Lifeforms had their attention fixed on the Ancient God's world, not to mention the agents of the Temple of the Holy Gods and the Chaos Holy God.
So even though the avatar's escape was far from subtle, it didn't draw the attention of other Eternal Lifeforms.
Back in the space between universes, the Chaos Holy God once again summoned all parties to gather.
Through the cosmic projection on the universal round table, the fleeing Ancient God avatar could be clearly seen when magnified.
Since the Ancient God's true body couldn't move, the avatar had to be the one to lure the Nightfall Guardian.
As for how to destroy the Guardian, the three of them would need to meet at the Primordial Sea of the Universe. By using the Source Seeds to draw upon the full power of the Primordial Sea, they could launch a joint assault. Even a Primordial Puppet couldn't withstand the full crushing force of that sea.
"It's time," the Chaos Holy God reminded them as the avatar neared the Primordial Sea.
Rosen and the Dimensional Holy God nodded, their true bodies stepping through the void nearly simultaneously to arrive at the Primordial Sea.
The Chaos Holy God had arrived in advance. It was Rosen's first time meeting the other two in reality.
As he studied the Chaos and Dimensional Holy Gods, they too were watching Rosen with veiled interest.
If not for their need to cooperate against the Nightfall Puppet, they would've already tested each other's strength—
To see whether this was the secret rise of some unknown Eternal Lifeform or a rebirth of another Primordial Being like themselves.
Soon, the Ancient God's avatar fled into the Primordial Sea, drawing the Guardian deeper and deeper.
Unfazed, the Nightfall Puppet followed closely behind, diving after the avatar without hesitation.
As it approached the Heart of the Universe, the Chaos Holy God's eternal will transmitted a message—it was time to strike.
They did intend to weaken the Heart of the Universe by using the sins and disasters of the Cosmic Graveyard, but they had to keep that weakening within controlled limits.
The Nightfall Puppet wasn't easy to manage, and if it accidentally harmed the Heart of the Universe, the resulting disaster would spiral out of control.
Rosen and the other two simultaneously activated the cosmic origin seeds and harnessed the primal cosmic power. The infinite sea of cosmic origins, composed of countless cosmic sources, instantly shifted from inert matter to living energy. All laws, strengthened by the endless cosmic origins, formed a small universe that enveloped the Nightfall Puppet.
Then, the entire small universe underwent instantaneous dimensional collapse, wrapping the Nightfall Puppet and forming a cosmic singularity.
Before the Nightfall Puppet could tear through the cosmic singularity, the singularity simulated the cosmic birth process of a starry universe — a cosmic explosion that released all the energy within the singularity, trapping the Nightfall Puppet in an endless blaze of heat and energy, burning it alive.
Rosen had expected the puppet to be reduced to ashes, but surprisingly, the cosmic explosion couldn't completely destroy the Nightfall Puppet.
Some remnants survived the cosmic explosion: a pair of blade arms, some dark sun origin essence, a primal core seed, a drop of pure flawless blood, and finally the puppet's original form — a small grave mound resembling the Nightfall Society's symbol.
At this critical moment, speed and strength mattered most; it was a race of hand speed and power.
Rosen gave his all and barely snatched that single drop of blood.
No one else tried to grab the dark sun origin essence — that was obviously meant for the Ancient God's avatar.
The Chaotic Holy God, being the strongest, claimed the primal core seed, while the Dimension Holy God got the pair of blade arms. It was likely the Dimension Holy God would share one arm with the Ancient God's true form, since the Dimension Holy God wanted to ally with the Ancient God against the Chaotic Holy God. After all, the Ancient God's avatar, acting as bait, deserved some credit.
During the scramble, the eternal wills of the three clashed fiercely.
Rosen didn't hold back; hiding his strength in front of these monsters would only make them doubt his worth to stand on equal footing.
Instead, he amplified his eternal will to the maximum with the help of the spiritual core.
Even so, compared to the Dimension Holy God, there was still a gap. Although qualified to stand alongside them, Rosen was clearly at the bottom, even weaker than the Ancient God, which somewhat eased the Dimension Holy God's hostility toward him.
On the other hand, the Chaotic Holy God's hostility toward Rosen soared, eager to kill him at the first chance.
Because it was obvious: with Rosen around, their alliance against him gained a new threat.
Rosen had no intention of testing the Chaotic Holy God's tolerance and fled immediately after grabbing the prize.
If the Chaotic Holy God had killed him on the spot, even if the Dimension Holy God intervened, severe injuries would be inevitable. The Dimension Holy God might even be pleased to see Rosen harmed, since removing the Chaotic Holy God would leave the Dimension Holy God as the greatest threat.
The Ancient God secretly sought an alliance with Rosen, not to fight the Chaotic Holy God alone, but to form a united front after defeating the Chaotic Holy God to then confront the Dimension Holy God.
After returning to the Holy God Temple, Rosen entered the Mysterious Study Room to carefully examine the drop of blood in his possession.
This was the most refined drop of primal life's origin blood. In terms of value, it was somewhat trivial.
That was why he was able to snatch it easily.
The Chaotic Holy God and others were all reincarnations of primal lives and had no shortage of primal life origin blood.
Moreover, even fusing with this blood, it was extremely difficult to cultivate it to the peak of eternity, and the thought of further cultivating it to multiple times primal level was just wishful thinking. Therefore, the blood's greatest value was only as a material to enhance life origin strength.
However, this was true for ordinary beings; for Rosen, it was completely different.
Rosen swallowed the drop of blood and absorbed it into his heart. Immediately, countless tendrils sprouted inside his heart, rooting into the blood drop and drawing nourishment from its origin essence to sustain his eternal holy body. At the same time, he took the opportunity to analyze the blood's life genetic blueprint.
Mastering the Universal Transformation Divine Method allowed one to become all things, but only if one had sufficient understanding of the changing subjects.
Otherwise, forced transformations would be hollow, only surface without essence.
Even with a thousandfold time acceleration and the primal source seed's ability to transform into compatible, plundering, or genetic source seeds, deciphering a primal life's life genetic blueprint still required millennia or even hundreds of thousands of years.
So Rosen chose to step back: if he couldn't analyze it, he would actively assimilate it.
Not knowing how to create something didn't mean one couldn't use it.
Therefore, instead of transforming, he assimilated the blood, and the Universal Transformation Divine Method was adjusted accordingly.
Rosen centered his heart around the blood drop, assimilating the entire bloodline and changing his life form.
He transformed into a mantis, simultaneously gaining the information contained within the bloodline.
He was now an incomplete juvenile form of the Eternal Mantis of primal life.
The Eternal Mantis was born with great calamity power but disliked causing disasters. Instead, it naturally preferred to end calamities, always siding with cosmic will from birth to death.
Ultimately, the Eternal Mantis was killed by primal life, with parts of its corpse harvested as materials to make primal puppets.
The Eternal Mantis stopped calamities in life and continued suppressing disasters after death.
Because it never violated its nature, the Nightfall Guardian created from it bore no backlash.
Although Rosen, as the Eternal Mantis, wielded primal calamity power, his strength was incomplete. He lacked the core calamity seed, which he sensed was in the cosmic origin sea — likely the one claimed by the Chaotic Holy God.
As for the pair of blade arms taken by the Dimension Holy God, they had no direct connection with the Eternal Mantis.
Rosen continuously used the primal source seed to analyze the primal calamity power, gradually converting it into a calamity source seed.
Although it was not as strong as the core calamity seed, quantity made up for quality.
His primal source seed could consume and convert other source seeds. The more he devoured, the more he converted. Consuming large amounts would eventually trigger qualitative change, making the primal source seed increasingly powerful.
Thus, his next focus for power improvement would be on source seeds.
Thousands of immortal gods and demons had fallen in the Fate War of the Ancient God World, and almost all of them had source seeds.
Those source seeds that could complement their own source seeds would definitely be refined and mastered by the newly ascended eternal beings who survived. But those source seeds that couldn't complement each other—innate source seeds were somewhat usable, at least as materials for forging eternal sacred artifacts. The remaining acquired source seeds held little value to them; even when forging immortal gods or demons, those materials were considered subpar.
However, Rosen did not mind at all—what he needed were these cheap and effective acquired source seeds.
Of course, he couldn't just freeload; he had competitors.
Whether innate or acquired, all source seeds originated from the Sea of Cosmic Origin, ultimately deriving from the Heart of the Universe.
Although the small universes controlled by the Chaos Holy Gods lacked a prototype of the Heart of the Universe and could not directly fuse these source seeds, it did not stop them from keeping these seeds for future use. No matter who ultimately obtained the Heart of the Universe, it was inevitable that they would have to exterminate all beings and reclaim all source seeds.
Therefore, Rosen had to strike first and take the source seeds from the hands of the newly ascended eternal beings ahead of time.
Forcefully taking them was out of the question; the best choice was to trade secretly.
Otherwise, fighting might net some free seeds, but it would alert the Chaos Holy Gods. Even though they were currently unsealing the last seal of the Nightfall Society in the Sea of Cosmic Origin, they could still stop temporarily to compete with Rosen for the source seeds.
To make eternal beings willing to trade source seeds, at minimum, eternal resources were needed to satisfy them.
Rosen had some on hand but not nearly enough to exchange for too many seeds.
So he planned to get something for nothing, using secrets they couldn't refuse as trade for the source seeds.
Using the power of his spacetime source seed, Rosen easily infiltrated the ancient god world's colossal eternal world.
He contacted one of the newly ascended eternal beings quietly and without a sound.
Rosen directly demonstrated the power of the cosmic source seed, and informed this eternal being that there were reincarnations of the primordial life in the universe.
All eternal beings had already been used as pawns by these reincarnations of primordial life.
To learn the identity of the player behind the scenes and the dangers ahead, one had to exchange acquired source seeds for intelligence.
Rosen sold whatever information he had about the Chaos Holy Gods, the Dimensional Holy Gods, and the Ancient Gods.
Although this certainly offended them, the Chaos Holy Gods had already wanted him dead. If the Chaos Holy Gods didn't die, even if the Dimensional Holy Gods were dissatisfied, they would continue to try to recruit him. As for the Ancient Gods, it was even less likely they would turn against him as long as the Dimensional Holy Gods remained alive.
Rosen almost simultaneously traded with all the victors of the War of Fate, acquiring close to half of the source seeds.
The other half remained—some innate source seeds they were unwilling to part with, others simply wanted to freeload.
Some saw that he traded source seeds for information and realized he couldn't be trading with just one person. They decided not to trade with him, hoping to get the information for free later from others. That kind of thinking wasn't wrong, but it wasn't exactly smart either.
An innocent man bearing treasure invites suspicion. The Chaos Holy Gods realized that Rosen's collection of source seeds would provoke a response.
Whether or not the seeds were useful now, if someone else took them, the Chaos Holy Gods would also collect them.
Eventually, whoever held the most source seeds would draw the eyes of the Chaos Holy Gods.
Free freeloading was certainly tempting—but only if one could endure the other costs.
Rosen dared to sell information about the Chaos Holy Gods because he could perfectly convert and master the spacetime source seed and escape any enemy. Those who dared freeload information from him should not complain when he spread the news about how many source seeds they controlled.
In fact, those people were not unaware of the consequences—they simply underestimated the Chaos Holy Gods.
In their eyes, hiding in the shadows clearly meant insufficient strength.
As long as the Chaos Holy Gods banded together, they feared no threat.
This judgment was not wrong. Though powerful, the Chaos Holy Gods faced only about ten eternal beings at once. If faced with dozens simultaneously attacking and chose to fight to the death, it would be a dead end.
However, they would never choose to fight to the death because controlling cosmic source seeds allowed them to advance or retreat freely.
Unless dozens of eternal beings gathered together and never separated, dividing them would lead to their being defeated one by one.
The reason elemental holy gods allied with the Chaos Holy Gods was obvious—they had witnessed the terror of the Chaos Holy Gods firsthand and knew that sheer numbers meant nothing before absolute strength. Thus, they sided with the Chaos Holy Gods to help control the Holy God Sanctuary.
Rosen returned to the Mysterious Study Room with half of the source seeds and began feeding them to the Root Source Seed.
They were all acquired source seeds, so they could split at most three times.
Nearly 1,500 source seeds in total—counting splits, almost 4,000 source seeds altogether.
Rosen's Root Source Seed had fully fused over 200 seeds, now swelling to nearly 4,300. Based on the calculation that a full set contained 10 seeds, his Root Source Seed could convert at least 430 full sets of 10-seed source seeds simultaneously.
More source seeds didn't always mean better; Rosen had a limit to how many he could control at once.
For those he couldn't control, he could integrate them into his small universe, embedding them inside the prototype Heart of the Universe within the Root Fruit.
Originally, after the Heart of the Universe revived, the prototype inside the Root Fruit had stopped growing.
Now, with source seeds as nutrients, the prototype Heart of the Universe began to grow again.
Rosen reserved a quota of 1,000 Root Source Seeds, while the rest fully integrated into the Root Fruit. The mature Heart of the Universe was not yet ready to be born, but creating a juvenile stage Heart of the Universe might be feasible.
Any secret, once known by too many, quickly ceases to be a secret.
Therefore, the existence of this was soon reported to the Holy God Sanctuary, and to the elemental holy gods and other administrators.
The busy Chaos Holy Gods also learned about it and grew even more murderous toward the hidden identity of the Fourth Mystery Person. The Dimensional Holy Gods were not angry; rather, they felt a bit happy because their biggest current headache was not them but the Ancient Gods.
(End of chapter)